The Emperor’s Runaway Lover

September 30th, Sky Lantern Festival.

Auspicious day for travel.

The Sky Lantern Festival was a traditional event celebrated for hundreds of years. On that day, people would set off sky lanterns to pay tribute to the millions of fellow citizens who died on Earth.

During the Sky Lantern Festival, the workers from the underground factory, as well as some residents from the parking lots, were given special permission to enter the huge square at the center of the Mo family fortress to enjoy the beautiful sky lanterns.

That afternoon, there were a lot of people gathering there.

Tens of thousands of workers from the underground factories, as well as some of the managers and residents of the parking lots, were arriving at the huge square, which was getting more and more crowded and lively.

It wasn’t until sunset that Mo Ziwei calmly appeared on a high up terrace, overlooking the square.

For this solemn festival, he was wearing a somber suit with a black and dark gold pattern. He was still wearing the elegant green ghost mask on his face, showing only his delicate white chin underneath.

The noisy crowd suddenly quieted down, with only some very faint murmurs remaining.

Xu Youyou wondered out loud, “Why does he always wear that mask?”

Aaron, next to her, whispered, “I heard people say that, when the Imperial Crown Prince beat him during the Great Rebellion of the Ninth District, his face got burnt.”

Xu Youyou curled her lips. “No wonder he’s so twisted. Back then, Lei-ge…”

Mr. Wei glared fiercely at the two of them muttering, and whispered, “You two, are you tired of living?! Why can’t you shut up? Look at Bai Mo!”

Aaron snapped his mouth shut and Xu Youyou glanced at Bai Mo, still unconvinced.

Bai Mo, standing next to them, wasn’t actually paying attention to their discussion. The boy was looking around, somewhat anxious, trying to find Fu Yucheng among the bustling crowd.

When he was going out that day, he had knocked on Fu Yucheng’s bedroom door and found him gone, having left a small note on the table.

Little Mo:

After the sky lanterns are released at the festival this evening, head to the inside of the east gate of Mo fortress and wait for me. We will head back to the dormitories together. If I still haven’t shown up an hour after the lanterns go up, hurry up and return to the windmill belt, and ask Old Sun to hide you. Don’t forget this note.

Fu Yucheng

Bai Mo knew that Fu Yucheng had gone to take care of his business.

Of course, he wouldn’t tell Bai Mo any of the specifics, since he was nothing but an useless ‘child’ to him. He had even left the ‘child’ with a proper way out, so that he wouldn’t get involved if Fu Yucheng failed.

Bai Mo lowered his head, feeling sour inside.

Where did he go? What did he go for? Why did it have to be on that day?

It was… it was the Sky Lantern Festival. The entire Mo fortress was very loosely guarded and Mo Ziwei had also left his private floor. Could Fu Yucheng be trying to…

Bai Mo was so agitated that he couldn’t resist the urge to look up at the terrace.

Mo Ziwei, wearing his elaborate green ghost mask, was staring into the distance, as if he was thinking of times long past. A faint silvery white line could be seen on the distant horizon, the edge of the Devil’s Antarctic.

At that moment, when the hands of the clock tower in the square were pointing at eight o’clock exactly, the master of ceremonies standing next to Mo Ziwei stepped forward and said loudly: “Silence—!”

The entire square went quiet at once.

Mo Ziwei’s eyes slowly swept across the tens of thousands of people below the terrace, and he slowly began to speak. “Today is the day of the Sky Lantern Festival. Ever since the Lock-in Day, for centuries…”

The voice of the young master of the fortress wasn’t too loud, but his tone was clear and well modulated, and everyone present could hear him clearly. Moreover, his voice exerted a pressure of some sort that made it impossible to ignore him, rendering ordinary people almost unable to stand up straight, their knees buckling.

Bai Mo stared at him. Was this… the power of an A-level psionic field manipulator?

Mo Ziwei didn’t speak for too long. After his speech, he nodded to the master of ceremonies next to him.

The master of ceremonies understood his gesture and said loudly: “Lift the lanterns—!”

Suddenly, the tens of thousands of flawless, white lanterns that the people had been holding began to slowly rise up in the air.

For a while, the only thing that could be seen were the snow-white lanterns covering the sky, contrasting against the bloody, unmoving sunset hanging above, looking particularly solemn and mournful.

It was a rare sight and everyone looked up at the sky in complete silence.

The huge square was quiet.

But Bai Mo wasn’t in the mood to appreciate the beautiful scenery. Instead, he had sneaked inside the east gate, waiting anxiously.

Where was Fu Yucheng?

At that moment, Fu Yucheng was on his own, climbing along the rough outer wall of the Mo fortress.

Today, and only today, everyone would be gathered in the inner square of the fortress, including the guards patrolling underneath the outer wall.

Since the internal security was still tight and it would be extremely difficult to sneak in, Fu Yucheng had chosen a different route: climbing the outer wall directly to the top floor, and then breaking into Mo Ziwei’s study.

Of course, the risk of doing that was also extremely high – if he was accidentally discovered, his body, hanging from the outer wall, practically had a bullseye painted on it. In all likelihood, he had a 9 out of 10 chance to be shot into a sieve or a hedgehog.

However, Fu Yucheng had always been a bold man.

The evening wind was very strong, especially at such high altitude, hundreds of meters above the ground. The strong gusts, carrying gravel, kept hitting him painfully on the face.

Fu Yucheng latched onto the protrusions and recesses on the stone wall with his hands and feet, moving with extreme caution, step by step.

The huge central fortress was taller than the outer fortresses. Fu Yucheng’s bedroom was located on the 32nd floor of the northwest side, while Mo Ziwei’s study was on the 48th floor of the northeast wall.

In other words, Fu Yucheng had to move along about a quarter of the circumference of the outer wall, and then climb sixteen stories up.

The rough granite quickly scratched up his palms, but he didn’t even notice it, his whole body slowly traversing the stone surface of the outer wall. From a distance, he looked just like a gecko.

Suddenly, a huge blood sucking bat jumped out from a crack in the stone wall.

Unable to dodge, Fu Yucheng’s hold slipped.

Quick like lighting, he latched onto a sharp stone protruding from the wall with one hand. His entire body hung in the air precariously.

Even someone as bold as Fu Yucheng couldn’t avoid breaking into a cold sweat.

Before he had a chance to catch his breath, the blood sucking bat hovered over him, flying in circles, before suddenly attacking Fu Yucheng from the back.

A blade flashed with a ghostly blue light, and Fu Yucheng sliced the bat in two mid air.

“Really, this is fucking inhumane…” He returned the scimitar to its scabbard at his back. Afterwards, he looked down at the empty space below his feet, a several hundred meters drop, and muttered a curse.

A long time went by before he was able to climb the floor-to-ceiling windows of Mo Ziwei’s study. Fu Yucheng was exhausted.

He clung to the window, pulled out the scimitar at his back, and silently sliced a circle on the glass surface. Then, he tapped it lightly.

The round section of glass fell onto the carpet inside the room without making a noise.

Fu Yucheng quietly slipped in and finally heaved a sigh of relief.

Everything had gone perfectly, no one was aware of his presence.

There were thick velvet curtains hanging over the study windows, shrouding the room in complete darkness.

Fu Yucheng took out a small pocket flashlight from his pocket and, with a click, a dim circle of light appeared.

The moment the light came on, he froze.

A man was staring coldly at him right from across the room.

Why would anyone be there?!

Fu Yucheng didn’t even have time to question it. He did a barrel roll, rushing to hide behind a statue by the corner.

The muscles of his back tensed up and his adrenaline surged, preparing to receive a strike from his opponent.

The ‘man’ remained motionless.

After a moment of stupor, Fu Yucheng couldn’t help it and laughed out loud. There was no man before him, only a life-sized oil painting on the wall.

The photorealistic painting was over two meters tall. It was a family portrait.

In the painting, a woman with soft and beautiful features was sitting on an armchair slightly to the side, with a little boy in her arms. A handsome and energetic man was leaning onto the left side of the armchair, and a delicate and good looking boy stood opposite. The man in the painting was the one Fu Yucheng had spotted just now.

Thinking about it, Fu Yucheng could guess the identity of these people.

The handsome man and the pretty woman sitting in the armchair should be Mo Ziwei’s parents, the late master of the fortress and his wife, both of which had passed away. The kid in the woman’s arms was Mo Ziran, and the good looking boy standing next to him would naturally be Mo Ziwei.

After Fu Yucheng took a closer look, he noticed that the artist’s signature was also at the bottom of the painting – Mei Yijun.

Fu Yucheng had also heard that name before. It was Mo Ziwei’s mother, the pretty woman in the painting. After Mo Ziwei’s disappearance that year, his mother, overwhelmed by grief, passed away a year later, without being able to wait for her son to return.

Frowning, Fu Yucheng looked at the painting for a while. He felt that there was something definitely off with it, but he couldn’t pinpoint precisely what it was.

He glanced at the clock on the wall – it was exactly nine o’clock. In one hour, the Sky Lantern Festival would end, so he didn’t have any more time to waste.

He took a deep breath and began to look around the study carefully.

The study was a very large room. One wall was covered with oil paintings, and on the one opposite there was a majestic, immense bookshelf. In front of the bookshelf, there was a pale silver, metallic floating desk.

Fu Yucheng walked over without hesitation and searched inside the desk drawers. There was nothing out of the norm inside, only a few dozens of important documents, and a number of pens in different colors to highlight key points.

In addition, there was a palm-sized, sterling silver photo frame inside the drawer. The frame was very delicate, and it contained a small, 3D photo.

For a moment, Fu Yucheng felt taken aback. The photo was almost identical to the oil painting on the wall. Mo Ziwei’s mother had probably used it as a reference when painting the portrait.

Fu Yucheng raised an eyebrow. Mo Ziwei, that deviant, was actually attached to his home, enough to keep this small family portrait inside the drawer.

He was about to return the photo frame to the drawer when he suddenly felt something strange, and he paused slightly.

Taking a closer look at the photo in his hand, he suddenly realized that there were some subtle differences between the colors in the photo and in the painting. In fact, when compared to the photo, the colors in the oil painting looked somewhat out of place.

It appeared that Mo Ziwei’s skills at painting realistic portraits weren’t particularly outstanding.

While thinking about that, Fu Yucheng put the frame back into the drawer. However, for some reason, he still felt something was off, as if an extremely important detail had just flown by and he hadn’t been able to catch it.

Seeing that time was running out, Fu Yucheng shook his head, stopped worrying about such trivial matters, and continued to search for what he came for.

Not long after, he found a secret safe on the floor underneath the seat.

The safe’s locking mechanism was still an old-fashioned fingerprint one instead of iris recognition. Fu Yucheng breathed out a sigh of relief. If it had been iris recognition, he would have needed to use force.

He took out a piece of soft clay from his fanny pack. On it there was a mold of a fingerprint that he had prepared long ago. A few days prior, when he had run into Mo Ziwei at the Italian restaurant, Fu Yucheng used a tape to extract his fingerprint from the other’s glass after Mo Ziwei left.

Silently, the safe’s door sprung open.

There wasn’t a lot of space inside it. It contained a stack of documents, a book, and a thick diary.

Fu Yucheng’s heart suddenly jumped when he spotted the diary, and, reaching out with his hand, he took it out.

The diary was clearly very old. Although it was well preserved, the brown leather cover was very worn out, and the pages inside were a bright yellow.

Fu Yucheng browsed through it and confirmed it to be Mo Hanchuan’s relic. He couldn’t suppress a burst of joy.

This diary was the entire reason he had come to the Mo family fortress.

Back in the day, Mo Hanchuan was convicted for mutiny. Remembering their past friendship, Rong Qian only destroyed the man’s psionic power and exiled him to Earth. However, soon after, Mo Hanchuan founded the Terran Rebel Army all by himself and established a rebel base – the predecessor of the current Fort Hurricane.

Afterwards, there were all sorts of signs indicating that Mo Hanchuan had recovered his psionic power.

After the removal of the correct sections of the cerebral cortex via surgery, it was impossible for psionic power to recover, because neurons are a type of cell that cannot be regenerated.

However, Mo Hanchuan miraculously recovered his psionic power.

As an Imperial Admiral known for always being ‘strict and proper’, Mo Hanchuan had a habit of writing the important events that had happened every day into his diary. When he was hastily rescued by the 4th Fleet, his diary naturally remained in the Mo fortress, and his descendants preserved it up until that day.

The secret of the recovery of Mo Hanchuan’s psionic power lay in this old diary.

Fu Yucheng carefully held the diary in his arms. He was about to close the door of the safe when he suddenly spotted the other book that remained inside and he paused in shock.

It was a centuries old paperback. It had a simple design, with a white cover and an orange spine about a finger thick, and the corners of the pages were dog-eared.

It was a copy of ‘Beyond Good and Evil’.1

 

 

Fu Yucheng going all Mission Impossible on us. Exciting developments incoming!

Here’s this week additional ko-fi chapter, thank you everyone for your support! Check out here for more extra chapter goals!

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Footnotes

One of Nietzsche’s (relatively) lesser known works. The raws specify it to be a Chinese copy but it seems superfluous here.